Nikki Haley Calls Myanmar’s Denial of Ethnic Cleansing ‘Preposterous’

Nikki Haley Calls Myanmar’s Denial of Ethnic Cleansing ‘Preposterous’

Myanmar’s persistent denial of a campaign of ethnic cleansing against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority is “preposterous,” U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Tuesday, calling on the government of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi to acknowledge that atrocities had been committed by the military.

Addressing a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, Haley said Myanmar is “preventing access to Rakhine to anyone or any organization that might bear witness” to alleged atrocities against the mostly stateless group, Reuters reports. Independent media and aid workers have been blocked from northern parts of Myanmar’s Rakhine State since October 2016, when the military launched brutal counter-insurgency operations.